


branching out

by Spatz



Category: Books of the Raksura - Martha Wells
Genre: Canon Relationships, Gen, Gender Roles, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-15 21:39:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13039953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spatz/pseuds/Spatz
Summary: “I want to go on the trip to see the Hassi,” Thorn said.





	branching out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nestra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nestra/gifts).



> The idea for this came from one of Martha Well's Patreon short stories, in which Jade suggests Moon could travel back to visit the Hassi sometime. There are also some minor spoilers for the final pair of books.

“I want to go on the trip to see the Hassi,” Thorn said.

Chime looked up, blinking hard a few times to bring Thorn into focus. “What?” he asked. Then he hastily put down his brush before it could drip paint all over the book he was working on, and looked up again.

“The trip that Moon and Jade are taking to the Abascene Peninsula to see the Hassi,” Thorn said patiently. “I want to come along.”

“And...why are you asking me?” Chime asked suspiciously. He was going on the trip, of course – he really wanted to know how the Hassi got water up pipes from the forest floor to their canopy gardens. He'd tried asking Moon, but Moon had gotten that blank expression he wore when he was confused or bored with something, and then distracted Chime with sex, so Chime had given up on getting answers from him.

“Because I asked Moon and he said no, but I thought you would listen.”

Chime sighed. Thorn and his clutchmates were out of the nurseries now, but Moon was still just as overprotective of the Sky Copper clutch as he was with his own. Chime and Jade had hoped he would settle down now that that he had a few clutches under his wings, but Moon had just spread his intense attention out further between them. Typical.

That didn't mean Moon was wrong in _this_ case, though.

“Thorn, this trip is going to be long and dangerous. You need to stay at the colony with Ember and Bitter, to help with the guests.” Frost had announced that she was interested in meeting consorts from other courts – not to _court_ them, just to _meet_ them, she said, repeatedly, though she got offended when anyone mentioned that she was still too young for courting anyway – so Ember had planned out an elaborate scheme of visits from their allies and potential allies, and the Arbora had gone into an ecstatic frenzy of redecorating and cleaning to prepare. Chime was pretty sure that was why Moon had finally decided _now_ was the right time to go on his trip, when he'd been idly talking about it for years, in between making clutches.

“Bitter wants to stay with Frost and meet queens. I want to travel. So he'll stay and keep our bloodline safe for the court even if something happens to me. He's good at talking now, mostly, and Ember says queens like shy consorts anyway.”

Chime floundered for a moment – conversations with Thorn somehow always went like this, with implacable logic that just happened to go against all of Chime's instincts. He thought sourly that the sensation was all too familiar, and this was definitely Moon's fault for being a bad influence.

“Thorn,” he tried again, “you know that consorts aren't supposed to travel that far, especially with such a small group.”

“Moon's a consort and he does,” Thorn said, setting his jaw stubbornly. “And since when has anyone in this court done things normally? Even Ember's given up on trying to stop it – he says that it's more important that the Arbora are happy, and everyone's talking to each other.”

Chime winced. That last part had definitely not been true at the old colony before the Fell attacked. “Moon is...special. Just because he does things differently doesn't mean you should.”

Thorn gave him a disappointed look. “It's not _just_ Moon. I thought you'd have noticed, since you were the first, but I guess not.” He sighed so sadly that Chime felt guilty, even though he had _nothing to feel guilty about_.

Also – “What do you mean, I was the first?”

“You're a warrior because you changed, but you're still a mentor,” Thorn said, in a very patient and slow way that reminded Chime suddenly, painfully of Flower. “And then there was Moon, and he wasn't just a consort, but he picked you as a favorite, and so people realized they could be different, too.”

“What people?” Chime asked. “And... and I'm not a mentor. Not really.” He forced himself to say the words: it still pulled at his heart, like an old scar.

Thorn gave him that look again. “You counsel the queens and the first consort, you make books and trade them to other courts, and you still have magic, just not the normal kind. Having wings doesn't make those things not count. And the others....” He looked calculating for a moment, which was disconcerting on such a sweet-faced consort. “I'll make you a deal. If you can't find them, I'll tell you who they are, and if you do find them, you have to ask Moon to let me go on the trip.”

Chime frowned. That was a terrible deal – but his curiosity had woken up and he really wanted to know what was going on now. Cautiously, he said, “ _If_ I find them, I'll ask Moon. But I'm not going to try to argue him into it.”

“Deal!” Thorn said brightly – a little _too_ brightly.

Chime was definitely going to regret this.

* * *

At first, Chime didn't know where to start. So he laid out his memory of the conversation like Flower had taught him, for the times when it was important to remember the exact words. Some of his mentor skills had vanished with his Arbora form, but that one had stayed.

 _Having wings doesn't make those things not count_ , Thorn had said. So 'the others' presumably had wings, too. Chime still spent more time around Arbora outside of Jade's circle of favorites, but he could start there.

As soon as Chime started looking, he was embarrassed at how quickly he spotted them.

The first one he noticed was Cadence, a warrior who he remembered seeing around the teachers' halls back at the old colony. She'd been sleeping with Petal at the time, so he'd figured that was why he saw her so often. But Petal was gone now, and yet Cadence always seemed to be around to fly cover when the fledglings got taken outside, or available to play when they were swimming and wanted to get dropped from up high, or to read to the little ones, or to take the odd messy fledgling to the baths while the other teachers corralled their clutchmates. She was even sleeping in the teachers' bowers, as far as Chime could tell.

If Cadence wasn't an Aeriat, Chime would have called her a teacher.

Then there was Saffron. Every day he wasn't flying patrol around the colony, he was in the potters' hall. He brought them clay samples from the farther reaches of the suspended forest, in case the quality was good enough for the Arbora to mount a full expedition; he helped carry finished pottery to the kiln. He obviously couldn't manage the pottery wheels or the decorations, but he mixed glazes and fetched supplies and admired the Arbora's work.

Then there was Marigold, who spent hours in the library reading and debating texts with the mentors, but couldn't write well enough to make her own; there was Flare, who like to cook strange new food combinations and make other people to try them; there was Spray, who had somehow made friends with Gold and convinced her to teach him how to make jewelry.

Chime lay in his bower that night and counted them up. 

When Chime had turned into a warrior, he'd been frustrated with how all the Aeriat did basically the same things all the time, and spent the rest of their time shoving each other around for status. They couldn't make art, they didn't seem to care about books or ideas or children, and they didn't care to help in the gardens or with making food. Moon cared about clutches and things, and he liked Delin and his books but had only recently started looking at the mentors' libraries – but he was a consort. 

Most of the Aeriat were the same as before, if less prone to obnoxious bullying with River out of power, but there was a small faction of Aeriat who were acting like Arbora – and the Arbora were letting them.

Chime remembered when he was young and had already chosen to become a mentor because of his magic, the other Arbora had been figuring out if they wanted to be teachers or soldiers or hunters. Chime would have chosen to be a mentor anyway, he thinks; more aggressive Arbora like Knell and Grain ended up as soldiers; more nurturing Arbora often chose teaching, like Bell. He'd thought there was just naturally more variation among the Arbora – but maybe the Aeriat were just never given the opportunity.

If Thorn was right, that had started changing around the time Moon came to Indigo Cloud, and stubbornly refused to act like a proper consort. He'd dragged Chime, still clinging to his life as a mentor, into the center of the court's dance along with him, to be seen and listened to – and imitated, apparently. 

So much had changed in the past turns, not only for their court but for all Raksura: learning about the Fell cross-breeding, discovering the forerunners, travelling so widely and meeting so many different peoples. There were even half-Fell living in the Reaches now! Yet somehow this was throwing Chime off-balance as much as any of it.

With a twinge of old grief, Chime thought Flower would have noticed all of this turns ago. He rather thought she would have approved. The court was happier like this, and the Arbora obviously thought it was fine, so they might as well keep going with it.

Indigo Cloud was always going to be a strange court to the rest of the Reaches – after everything that had happened with the Fell and the forerunners, that was inescapable – but apparently they were even odder than Chime had realized.

Chime wondered if there was anything in the histories about this. There was that queen and her consort who had gone to the Golden Isles – Solace and Sable – which was pretty unusual. Consorts normally didn't travel that far away from– 

Suddenly remembering, Chime groaned and flopped back into the cushions. Now he really did have to argue Moon into letting Thorn go on the trip. He knew he was going to regret that deal.


End file.
